Friday, January 31, 2014

Two-Spirits of North America - Courtney Brown

Two-Spirits of North America
By: Courtney Brown

What is a two-spirit? A two-spirit is a Native American male who is feminine. Although many people may think the term two-spirit came about way back when it recently just started being used. A long time ago when the French came over to America and discovered these feminine Native American males they gave them the name "berdache".[1]The two-spirit males were often married to very masculine men or had sexual intercourse with them. There were also masculine females given the same name in which they married or had sexual intercourse with feminine females. Many Native Americans never focused on their homosexuality but their talent and spiritual gifts they brought to the tribe. American Indians tend to believe that everything around them came from the spirit world so they looked at these two-spirits as being blessed twice. They are honored/seen as more spiritually gifted than a normal Native American female or male. Two-Spirits often become leaders or teachers in their tribe because of their spiritual gifts. There are two-spirits all over North America and just about every tribe has their set of them. 

As I learned in class, two-spirits did both male and female work because they were usually strong enough to do a mans work but also had the artistic abilities to do a females work.[2] This is why two-spirits were encouraged to marry a feminine female if they were a woman or a masculine male if they were a man. It had to be balance in each household because the male did most of the hunting for meat and war while the women were expected to find plant foods and do household things. Many tribes have their own common name used for two-spirits in which they are all different but have the same meaning.[3] The terms used in Native American society had nothing to do with gender and many people mistook the words such as "two-spirit" and connected them to gender roles and sexual preferences. This was not true in native American society it only represented two genders being brought into one. Something that I never knew was that their were rituals performed in some tribes to find out if a young boy was a two-spirit. If the boy proved to have two-spirit in him he was then raised up in that fashion. I find it interesting that they did these types of things it just proves that they had no hostility towards males who wanted to pursue this way of life and they looked at them as a blessing upon the tribe. I think that present day America should be this way. Why cant we look at homosexuals or intersex people as blessings to the world instead of looking at them as a disgrace and a burden on society. It just goes to show that many people of the world today think in a one way path and they don't look at what could be out of a situation. I applaud these Native American two-spirits and these tribes that have always accepted them. 
                 http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/11/two-spirit-people-north-america

http://www.freedomrequireswings.com/2012/07/two-spirit-people.html

[1] Walter, Williams L. "The two-spirit people of indigenous North America", http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/11/two-spirit-people-north-america. (January 30, 2014)
[2]Moore, Crystal. "Native American Sexuality & Sexual Violation in the Conquest of the Americas" Lecture. January 21,2014
[3]Laframboise, Sandra, and Anhorn, Michael. The Way of The Two Spirited People, http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/twospirit.php, (January 30, 2014)

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